Quairading District High School Animation Project

Other Projects

In 2013 Quairading District High School celebrated its centenary and CAN worked with the school to tell the stories from its history in a series of animated short films.

CAN and the school worked together to engage the wider community to share their stories, and then students worked with animation artist Steven Aiton to bring the stories to life in an animated film series.

The stories in the film portray Noongar dreamtime stories, the experiences of students throughout the school’s 100-year history, and the moving and historical account of local Noongar Elder, John Kickett.

John Kickett fought to have his children attend the local state school in the early 1900s and the animation shows how his efforts helped to end segregated education in Western Australia.

The process of gathering and animating these stories strengthened the relationship between local Elders and the school and in turn students acquired a real sense of how important these stories are to their community and the depth of their town’s history.

The project also gave students and teachers new digital animation skills and gave them new ways to use the technology already available at the school including iPads, digital cameras and light boxes.